Saturday, May 24, 2008

Shhhh... sleepy-time



One of my most absoutest favoritest things to do is sleep.  And now that I have an angel snuggled up with me, it has become THE most absolutest favoritest part of my day.  

She naps sometimes in her sling, her angel face resting over my heart, her little dimpled hand pressed against my chest with a look of complete calm and peace.  At the mall today, she fell asleep like that.  (Not, of course, without her screeching announcement that the hour of nap was nigh.  I swear, she goes from zero to Banshee in 5 seconds flat!)

But as she drifted off against me, I looked down at her and got that overpowering rush of mommy-love that consumes your whole body... undeniably one of the most wonderful things to ever experience.  The first time I felt that was the night that she was born.  Despite 17 hours of excruciating labour, I was not tired that night, and it seemed that neither was she.  We lay side-by-side and stared at each other for what felt like hours, yet also felt timeless.  Time had stopped then.  The feeling is fiercely tender, overcomes your every cell and engulfs your soul.  I gasped.  I still gasp sometimes when I feel it's power.

I bent my head to nuzzle her hair and inhale that sweet smell of baby, then looked up at hubby.  ''She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen'' I told him.

And I get to do this every day... several times!  

At night it seems extra soft.  In the dark she curls up into my stomach, and I curl around her.  When she wakes up to nurse, she does, and then we both drift back off.  I can't imagine missing out on this by putting her in a crib.

I read recently that some states in the US want to make co-sleeping illegal because some people co-slept with their babies, and their babies died.  Then I read that the study was based on people with drug and alcohol abuse problems.  You can form your own opinion on that.

I don't think a life sentence could make me stop.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The co-sleeping study may be based on people who have alcohol and drug abuse problems but it could happen to anyone. For example:

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=413016&r=0&Category=9&subCategoryID=0

I think it all boils down to _how_ you do it. If you take proper precaution nothing bad should happen. We don't ban swimming just to keep the number of drowning accidents down, do we? We teach people to swim instead.